SCIENTIFIC MANPOWER 259 



NDRC, but was finally forced by circumstances to drop it in favor of the 

 new NDRC policy. 



Work done by staff members of academic institutions during their vaca- 

 tions was always recognized as presenting a special case. The regular aca- 

 demic practice is to pay staff members for work done during an academic 

 year which is usually of approximately ten months' duration with the indi- 

 vidual staff member free to supplement his income by teaching during his 

 vacation. Since work under NDRC contracts during the vacation period 

 represented a net loss of salary to the individual, it was recognized as ap- 

 propriate that NDRC should pay for work spent on its contracts during 

 that time. 



As OSRD contracts increased in size and academic institutions were 

 forced to supplement their regular staffs, the matter of proper salary levels 

 assumed increasing importance. The supply of well-qualified physicists was 

 soon exhausted and the competition for less experienced men and for men 

 in related fields became keener. Situations began to develop in which OSRD 

 contractors were not only in competition with industrial establishments 

 but also with each other. OSRD recognized that, having pressed upon its 

 contractors the responsibility for obtaining highly important results from 

 research in a relatively short time, there were limits beyond which it should 

 not go in dictating policies to be followed by contractors in acquiring nec- 

 essary personnel. 



The first problem given the OSRD Committee on Scientific Personnel 

 when it was created in June 1942, was that of studying the salary practices 

 of OSRD contractors and making recommendations on the subject to 

 the Director. Aydelotte's study showed considerable difference of opinion 

 among contractors as to the proper policy. Salaries were on the increase 

 throughout the national economy. It was not unusual for skilled mechanics 

 to receive higher salaries than junior scientists. The latter were leaving 

 academic institutions to go into war work paying higher salaries and NDRC 

 contractors were finding it necessary to meet competitive salary scales. 

 Contractors who had succeeded in building up satisfactory staffs vigor- 

 ously defended their salary scales, which they felt were entirely justified 

 by the manpower situation and by the salaries paid for comparable posi- 

 tions in industry. Contractors who had sought unsuccessfully to build up 

 satisfactory staffs were equally vigorous in expressing their opinion that 

 the salary situation had begun to get out of hand; and academic institutions 

 losing personnel both to OSRD contractors and to industry were gloomy in 

 estimating the effect which the general increase in salaries would have upon 

 the ability of colleges and universities with limited endowments to carry 

 on their postwar work. 



It was, of course, impossible to reconcile the various views; and it would 

 have been equally impossible to establish a firm salary schedule which 



